Linagem is a potent set of techniques designed by the Corajoso to heighten their awareness of Blood Sympathy, expand their command over Blood Ties, and take devious advantage of the Vinculum (Vampire: The Requiem, p 161-164). As each member of the bloodline develops this Discipline, he also gains the unsettling knowledge that he just might be the victim of this power at any given time.
Ghouls cannot develop this Discipline. They simply do not have potent enough blood to be able to open their senses to Kindred Vitae.
The most basic power of this Discipline allows the Telepath to slowly increase his overall ability to enforce and recognize blood ties. With this power, even younger Kindred have a chance to forge a Vinculum and enthrall Kindred decades or centuries older than themselves.
Cost: —
Dice Pool: This power involves no roll. It provides bonuses to other rolls; it is considered to be “always on,” and does not need to be activated.
Add the character’s dots in Linagem to rolls for the taste of family or blood sympathy. Additionally, characters find resisting any stage of a Vinculum to the Telepath more difficult. The rolls made to resist the Vinculum, at any level, suffer a penalty equal to the vampire’s Linagem rating.
Normally, a vampire is able to discern the presence of close relations by tasting the blood of another Kindred (or mortal, in the case of his own mortal lineage). With an amount of skill, he may even be able to identify the blood of another clan. However, this power expands the sensitivity of his palate and allows him to reach for the secrets bound in the Vitae. Corajoso using this power might be able to discover the identities of Kindred connected to the donor, as well as complete Vinculums the donor is involved with (as regnant or thrall). The vampire using this power must still taste the blood (as per the rules for the taste of family), but he cannot derive information of the traditional sort at the same time he uses this power.
Cost: 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Occult + Linagem – subject’s Blood Potency
Action: Instant
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The vampire is overwhelmed by the taste of the Vitae. He may not use this power for the rest of the scene.
Failure: The vampire gains no information from the tasted Vitae.
Success: The vampire learns part of the identity of others who are connected to the blood’s donor. The Telepath receives a brief mental image of a face and learns how that person is related to the donor (sire, grandsire, childe, grandchilde, thrall or regnant). The vampire discovers one such person or vampire per dot of Linagem.
Exceptional Success: In addition to the information above, the vampire also learns the primary name, nickname or title of a given connected vampire or mortal. If the donor does not personally know enough about the connected individual to know a name or identity, no additional information is provided.
As the Corajoso studies the effects of blood ties, he is able to strengthen the connection to those with whom he shares a direct lineage. He can also extend a lesser connection to “siblings” in blood (Kindred who were Embraced by the same sire).
Cost: —
Dice Pool: This power involves no roll. It provides bonuses to other rolls; it is considered to be “always on,” and does not need to be activated.
When using any Discipline or other power that benefits from being turned on a vampire with whom the user has a blood tie, the bonus is equal to the character’s dots in Linagem, rather than the usual +2.
Example: Joseph possesses Linagem •••• and attempts to Dominate his childe. Normally, Joseph’s player would add two dice to the pool rolled for Dominate. However, because of Joseph’s Linagem Discipline, the player adds four dice instead of the two dice from blood ties.
Additionally, the normal effects of blood ties now extend to this vampire’s siblings. Any power that allows a bonus due to blood ties provides a +2 bonus when turned on any vampire that was Embraced by the same sire as the Telepath.
The bloodline’s weakness is due to the constant connections Kindred share with others linked to them through blood ties. While most such psychic transmissions are too faint for the average vampire to perceive, the Corajoso are cursed with the confusion of sensing all of the feelings and communications received by all other Kindred nearby. There is a benefit, however. At this level of mastery, a Telepath can force his own false messages into a target’s perceptions. Corajoso use this power to lure enemies into traps, incite riots and impersonate powerful elders.
Cost: 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: Presence + Empathy + Linagem vs. Resolve + Blood Potency
Action: Contested; resistance is reflexive
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The vampire sends a message, but the recipient immediately recognizes it as a forgery — as does any vampire within a 10 mile radius who could have sent the message (the target’s sire, for instance).
Failure: The vampire is unable to simulate blood ties.
Success: The Corajoso can send a false impression of blood sympathy to any vampire within line of sight. This blood sympathy is a burst of emotion or a feeling of danger, much like a normal expression of blood sympathy would be, and requires a successful Wits + Occult roll from the target to feel it (see p. 163 of Vampire: The Requiem). The recipient’s player receives a +2 modifier on this roll, however, since the “blood sympathy” is expressly intended for him. The Corajoso can specify how the blood sympathy feels in terms of time, distance and direction.
Exceptional Success: The target does not need to roll to experience the sympathy. He automatically feels the equivalent of an exceptional success, perceiving exactly what is happening to the distant Kindred — or rather, exactly what the Corajoso wants him to perceive.
Distant Mastery is the ultimate in a Telepath’s focus on Vinculi and blood sympathies. The Vinculum ensures a great deal of influence over any mortal or vampire a regnant has enthralled. Total mastery of Linagem allows a Telepath to refine that influence into a conduit for commanding his thralls. This power is unique in the sense that it does not provide functionality on its own. Knowledge of Animalism and/or Dominate is required to fully utilize this power’s benefits. Normally, a regnant may turn the powers of the Dominate discipline on his thrall without the need for eye contact. Distant Mastery allows the Telepath to issue such commands, as well as similar uses of the Animalism discipline, through Vinculum-forged spiritual connections similar to those of blood sympathy.
Cost: 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: This power involves no roll. It allows the Telepath to follow up with an application of Animalism • or •• or Dominate • or ••.
Action: Reflexive. The Willpower point is spent in the same turn that the Corajoso uses either Animalism or Dominate. All rules, rolls and modifiers apply to the use of the follow-up power, as normal. Because Willpower is spent to activate Distant Mastery in the same turn as Animalism or Dominate, Willpower may not be spent to increase dice pools during that turn.
This power allows the Corajoso to use Animalism or Dominate on any animal, mortal or vampire that is fully blood bound to him. This can be accomplished at a range similar to the limits of blood sympathy’s link (within the same city or roughly 50 miles outside urban areas), but the range can be greatly extended. A Corajoso can use bound targets as “relay points,” measuring the distance from them rather than from himself.
For example, a Telepath has a ghoul living roughly 50 miles away, and another living 100 miles away. The vampire can send a message to the more distant target using the blood of the intermediary as a relay. This inflicts a point of bashing damage upon all intermediary targets, and costs the vampire one Vitae for each intermediary he uses. Even so, it’s entirely possible for Kindred to communicate their wishes around the world — which, of course, was the original use of the power.